‘I’m from where you learn to run before you can walk’: the comic strip artist telling the story of DRC’s conflict

Edizon Musavuli uses his art to depict the daily struggles and constant insecurity of living in the rebel-occupied city of Goma

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n the early hours of the morning, Baraka, a young boy, wanders through the streets of Goma. He takes a wrong turn and runs into bandits. Back home, his father flicks through TV channels while his mother counts bags of flour. No one speaks. The silence is broken only by crackles on the radio.

By evening, Baraka is sitting on the shore of Lake Kivu, looking south to Bukavu and east towards Rwanda, finding no hope in either direction.

This is the opening to Baraka and the Unpredictable Life of Goma, the first comic by a 31-year-old visual artist, Edizon Musavuli, published earlier this year in the Continent, a weekly pan-African newspaper. The story depicts everyday struggles in Goma through the eyes of a child.